Sunday, October 21, 2007

mini review: gone baby gone

[photo: the sox win the pennant! the sox win the pennant! anyway.]

this is only a mini review because a, this is one of those movies where the plot gets twisty and i don't want to ruin it for anyone like i ruined that episode of battlestar for alex where starbuck "dies" (alex i'm sorry! and look, she lived!), and b, i sat so fucking close to the screen in century city that i didn't so much see this movie as i did the inside of casey affleck's nostrils. that said, i really liked this movie.

also, in case you did not know, and lord knows i haven't mentioned it enough, i am from boston. and not that the promotional material for this movie ever mentions it, but boston happens to be where this movie is set.

it's set in dorchester, specifically, which is one town over from where i used to go to high school, where my dog will hopefully be staying when i go on my travels (next week, get psyched for not-reviews!), where the popeye's used to be on blue hill ave (rip) where i'd send my mom in to get me and my sister chicken tenders, biscuits, and a trough of spicy fries (ordered through plexiglass) if we did well on tests in middle school, where i interned at sub pop the summer before college and sent out harmacy promos and made beds in the sub pop spare rooms for the grifters and elliott smith, where the chez vous rollerskating rink is that's great except that people tend to get shot there from time to time, where the whalbergs are from (before they bought their parents a nice house near the town i grew up in) and where mark beat and almost killed some guy but who's counting.

and finally, near the quincy quarries (featured in the film!) where i used to go rock climbing with the hiking club in high school (whatever, it got me out of PE), this when we weren't "hiking" through chickatawbut, which is an indian reservation in the blue hills, but really a place where gay men meet up for anonymous sex, so nobody'd ever have a heart to tell the math teacher who lead hiking club why there were always pairs of ripped underwears by the trail.

oh! and it's also where the dunkin donuts was where my friend dave would go and always be told to "cut your fuckin' hayah, you look like a queeyah," which is why i like all the local extras in this movie so much, because they all basically have the same function-- to insult people ("fuck you, cocksuckah!")-- which essentially all i've ever heard from people in dorchester, so these were parts these locals were born to play. and kudos to michelle monaghan for a, not feeling obliged to try the accent yourself (oof, vera farmiga in the depahted), and b, being as good as you were in "kiss kiss bang bang" when you were supposed to be about the same age as robert downey jr and still made it work.